The present invention generally relates to tape cassettes, and more particularly to a tape cassette which is designed so that at least one reel is removably accommodated within a cassette case of the tape cassette.
In the conventional tape cassette, a pair of reel hubs (or spools) are accommodated within a cassette case of the tape cassette. Leader tapes which are connected to both ends of a magnetic tape, are fixed to the respective reel hubs, and the magnetic tape is wound around these reel hubs. In the conventional tape cassette, the reel hubs, the magnetic tape, and the like, are permanently accommodated within the cassette case. In other words, the conventional tape cassette is designed so that the reel hubs, the magnetic tape, and the like, cannot be removed from the cassette case.
For this reason, one tape cassette was conventionally required to carry out a recording or a reproduction with respect to one reel of tape. The tape cassette itself is relatively small compared to the reel-to-reel type, however, when the user wanted to keep a certain number of reels of tape, the user had to keep the same number of tape cassettes. As a result, it took up a large space to keep a large number of tape cassettes, and there was a problem in that it was difficult for the user to carry a large number of tape cassettes at one time.
Although the pair of reel hubs are accommodated within the tape cassette, these reel hubs are used when the tape cassette is loaded into a tape recorder and the magnetic tape wound on one of the reel hubs is taken up by the other reel hub. Accordingly, when the tape cassette is to be kept in a state where all of the magnetic tape is wound on one of the reel hubs, the other empty reel hub which has no magnetic tape wound thereon is unnecessary.
The present invention was made by noting the problem described before and the fact that the empty reel hub is unnecessary when keeping the tape cassette in the state where all of the magnetic tape is wound on one of the reel hubs.